


Allow Me to Demonstrate

by gandalfthesassy



Series: The Monkees Reader-Inserts [8]
Category: The Monkees, The Monkees (TV)
Genre: Cute, Filming a Show, Fluff, I love him but he didn't work himself in, I think he deserves a break anyway, Kissing, Multi, Screen Kissing, TV Show, kiss, no Peter this time, sorry - Freeform, to be fair he's been in basically every other one so far
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 21:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10772550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gandalfthesassy/pseuds/gandalfthesassy
Summary: You help Micky demonstrate a screen kiss.Rated G because the worst thing that happens is a kiss. Slight blurring of real-life and TV!Monkees. Somehow sweeter than my other fics so far. Gender-neutral reader.





	Allow Me to Demonstrate

_“Gosh, Mike, what a groovy pad,” Janice enthused, stepping into the room with her eyes wide and her jaw hanging loose. “It’s so...spacious and empty of anyone.” She stood in the center of the room and looked around as Mike came up behind her._

_“Well uh, listen,” he peeked over her shoulder, wrapping his arms around her waist, “if it’s not too much trouble, would you wanna...come up to my room?” She turned to him, breaking from his arms._

_“Oh Mike! I’m sorry, I can’t, I just_ can’t _,” she apologized profusely, dashing to the window._

_“But why?!” he asked her, indignant._

_“Because I’m already dating Davy!” On cue, Davy threw open the upstairs door, slid down the railing, and jumped up next to Janice. He pulled her to him, adopting a bravado that men could only dream of playing._

_“That’s right, Michael,” he declared, his voice booming and narcissistic. Mike stared in shock. “_ I’m _dating Janice. Now why would you offer to do something like that with her?”_

_“Because you don’t deserve her,” Mike stepped up to Davy and towered over him. “You can’t tell her what she can and can’t do. That’s up to her.”_

_“Oh yeah? Are you gonna stop me? The man who once broke a finger by dialing his mum? You must be joking.” Mike folded his arms and looked down at his roommate, whose eyes lit up with fire. “Go on, come on and take a crack at me,” Davy pointed to his face and put up his fists as a challenge._

“I’d take a crack at that,” you talked to yourself, sitting back in the director’s chair behind the camera. “I’ll punch that baby face of his. Could use a bit of roughing up.” The chair didn’t have your name on it, but you were sitting in on a rehearsal for an upcoming episode of _The Monkees_. Before the cameras were technically rolling, you’d become something of an assistant director--partly because your director was none other than Micky Dolenz, your friend, client, and briefly your boss.

You weren’t quite sure who suggested it first; you were half-sure you brought it up but you were fairly sure you weren’t the one to suggest Micky as a guest director. In all likelihood, you would have suggested Peter because he’d done one before and he knew the process for directors. But people with more knowledge of television or something asked Micky if he’d direct an episode and he obliged.

So here you were, sitting in the director’s chair while Micky directed whatever the hell this episode was about. The argument between Mike and Davy had dragged on a bit. You looked over at Micky just as he was looking at you, from where he was standing beside the camera. The both of you rolled your eyes. You could only take so much hamming it up in front of a camera.

“Cut,” Micky finally called. He walked over to Mike and Nellie (Janice). You leaned in, not wanting to move from your chair in case someone thought they could talk to you. You wished you’d brought your sunglasses so you could look important.

You couldn’t quite hear what Micky was telling Mike, but you could definitely hear Mike. Although it was in jest he sassed the director: “If you want me to _really_ take her and kiss her, I don’t know that I could do that.”

“If it helps,” Nellie agreed, “if he dips me, it’s out of shot and we’d have to move the cameras around.”

Micky pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know, I get that, man. But remember, this script wants you to make it big and romantic or whatever, so it’s a much bigger letdown for the kids when she rejects you for Davy.”

“It always is!” Davy joked from the floor. He’d sat down sometime between when Micky called ‘cut’ and when he came over.

“Very funny,” Mike made a face but relaxed again. “But if I’m being honest, Micky, I don’t know how to do this without dropping her.”

“Well, it’s easy, you just…” Micky tried to position Mike’s arms in such a way that he’d be cradling Janice. Nellie glanced over at you and mouthed, ‘I’m so dead.’ You gave her a helpless shrug and tried not to cringe too hard. Finally, Micky said, “You know what, let’s take a five. I gotta think this through.” He turned to the crew and cried: “Everybody take five!” One of the PAs echoed the call for anyone who didn’t hear Micky. Some of the crew disappeared outside for a smoke break, others hung around disinterestedly.

Micky sat on the floor in front of you and sighed. “You got any bright ideas? ‘Cause I’ve got none, absolutely none.”

“Well...he has to kiss her, yeah?"

“Yeah.”

“Okay. So you tried to show him how to kiss and it didn’t work.”

“Right. So what do I do now?”

“I’m flattered that you think I might have the answer.”

“(y/n), I’ll literally listen to whatever ideas you’ve got.”

“You sure?” He looked at you.

“Yeah. Seriously, if you’ve got _anything_ , I’ll take it.”

You broke into a grin. Oh, you knew _exactly_ what to do. What a golden opportunity to bring up what you’d been meaning to say for a month. “We could show them how it’s done.”

Micky did a double-take. “I’m sorry, _what_?”

You tilted your head, feigning ignorance. “Like, nothing major, we could demonstrate briefly how you dip someone and kiss them. Then they do it and you modify the performance from there.”

“But, but,” he murmured, genuinely scandalized, and got to his feet, “you and I are _friends_.”

“You and Mike have your hands on each other all the time on the show, and you’re friends.”

“That’s acting, (y/n),” he dismissed that.

“Yeah, and we’ll be acting too. But you know how to screen-kiss, and I know how to screen-kiss. These two really don’t, so we might as well just demonstrate.”

“You keep saying _demonstrate_ , but it’s, it’s a _kiss_!”

“You’ve never been this hung up over a screen-kiss before, Micky,” you observed. He stopped suddenly and you got up as he spluttered.

“That’s because it’s not usually _me_ getting kissed.”

“Look, it’s simple. You say, ‘Here Mike, Nellie, (y/n) and I are gonna demonstrate how you should try and kiss. You can make it your own but here’s one way to dip.’ Then we do the kiss, few seconds, let go, and you say, ‘Alright, your turn.’”

“That last bit could go horribly wrong.”

“Only if you let it.” He sighed. You could tell he knew you were right, and you felt your chest swell a little at that. You felt a little bad, but hey, you were gonna kiss Micky. “We’ve got, what, two minutes? So let’s bring it back and show them and move on.”

“Alright,” Micky relented, avoiding your gaze. The two of you sat tight until a PA called attention back to Micky, who mustered up his best happy-go-lucky smile. “Hey Nellie, Mike,” Micky went over to them, “can you two trade places with me and (y/n) for a minute? We’re gonna show you what the kiss should look like.” They agreed fairly neutrally and did so. Nellie watched the monitor while Mike kept his eye on the two of you. You went over to Micky and stood in front of him. “Am I dipping you or vice versa?”

“I’m not...I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” his voice faded into a mumble.

“It’s okay. I’ll play Mike,” you raised your voice a little, “and you play Janice. So!” Micky stepped back a little. “You’re not getting cold feet, are you?”

“If my feet _were_ cold I’d use them to cool off hot drinks,” he laughed nervously. "As it is, they're pretty, uh, lukewarm." You gave him a nod of warning, and he prepared himself--though in his eyes you could see him panicking. You weren’t sure why.

You stepped forward and spun him around, gently tilting him backwards. You went a little further when you felt him adjust himself. “Janice,” you improved the line, “I wanna make everybody as happy as I feel when I’m with you.” Micky covered up his surprise by acting feminine and putting a hand on your chest.

“Show me how happy you feel, (y/n)--I-I mean, _Mike_ ,” Micky caught himself, but you felt your mind ignite. You were gonna kiss him, and you were gonna do it _right_. Your eyes flickered to his lips and you pressed yours against them, your grip on him becoming steady. He threaded his arms onto either side of your head as you two kissed a little deeper.

You pulled back after what you felt was a short but substantial time. You helped Micky back to his feet and turned to the others. You couldn’t help notice Micky’s beet-red face and the cute little giggles he made. As you spoke to the others, he put his hands around one of yours. “So you support the lower back and you just let the moment take you. At the very least, both of you, be gentle and firm. If it gets too mechanical, Micky will say something. Right, Micky?” You looked back at him and he nodded, but you could see he was still recovering.

“After the way you kissed him,” Mike remarked, “I don’t think we’re gonna be able to top that.” Nellie tried to hide her smile but you could see it in her eyes.

“You’ll be fine,” you assured them. You could feel just how arrogant you were getting and you embraced it. “I think we need some practice too.” You heard Micky mutter next to you, “Oh my _God_.”

“Well, I think we can do that,” Nellie confirmed. “I mean, it _was_ on-camera.”

Mike jumped in: “And informative.” She shot him a look but he ignored her.

“Okay, I’ll let you crazy kids get back to your show,” you bid them goodbye. You tried to go back to the chair and then noticed again that Micky was holding your hand pretty tightly. “Micky, I love you, but I gotta sit down. We can hold hands while I’m sitting if you’re that worried about losing me.”

“Nah, I just don’t want you to forget that you’re loved, because you are, by me, a whole lot.” He pressed a kiss to your nose. From somewhere behind you, Davy gagged loudly and exaggeratedly. You turned to him and flipped him off even though you were still giggling.

“I think,” you pushed him away a little bit, managing to get your hand away from him, “we should finish this and continue later.”

“You got it,” he smiled. You took his chair again as he turned back and called to the crew: “Alright everybody, let’s come back and start again. Top of the Mike and Janice kiss scene, take five. And...action!”

**Author's Note:**

> I've been watching some of the Monkees' commentary on their episodes, and one of my fave things is watching when each Monkee talks about the episode they directed (e.g. Peter with "The Devil and Peter Tork," Micky with "The Frodis Caper"). Just hearing them talk about the process is really cool, like hearing them explain what went in and what might not have made the cut, or who so-and-so was to them.


End file.
